The present invention relates generally to a nozzle for controlling the delivery of fluid to a container or reservoir and, more specifically, to a nozzle for the exchange of security, identification, and transaction information between a container, such as a fuel or other fluid storage tank, and a fluid delivery system.
The delivery and control of the delivery of fluids is ubiquitous, varying from water, such as for irrigation, liquefied petroleum gas (propane), oxygen and other gases, and petroleum based fuels such as gasoline and diesel fuel. As a specific example, many vehicles are operated as a part of a commercial enterprise wherein detailed and accurate records are needed to account properly for the use of the vehicle and to support income tax return filings. Very often the vehicle is owned other than by the operator and fuel used by the vehicle is purchased by the absentee owner at the time a fuel delivery is made. Accurate and reliable records are necessary to assure that the appropriate vehicle receives the purchased fuel and, to the extent possible, that the miles logged by the vehicle correspond to actual commercial, not private, use.
To address these requirements of fluid delivery and control, devices such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,819 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,522 provide means for radio frequency communication between a fluid delivery device and a fluid container. To increase the efficiency and desirability of these aforementioned devices, it would be beneficial to provide means for communicating information received during a fluid delivery directly from the fluid delivery nozzle via a wireless communicative link. It would be additionally desirable to allow an operator to input information directly into the nozzle during a fueling operation and to have information displayed on the nozzle for viewing by the operator. The following specification and claims address these supplemental advantages.